3    2E5    SDfi 


H  D 
9948 

U64 
S7 
1911 
MAIN 


GIFT 


Alittle  Journey 
to  the  Home  of 

JOHN- 


STETSON 

Di/ElbertHubbaKl 


EVERY 
great  In 
stitution  is  the 
Lengthened 
Shadow  of  a 
Single  Man 

E     M     E     R    S    O     N 


JOHN    B.  STETSON 


A  Little  Journey  to  the  Home  of     \ 

John  B.  Stetson 

BY       ELBERT       HUBBARD       ! 


Done  into  a  Printed  Book  by  The  Roycrofters,  at  Their       j 
Shop,  which  is  in  East  Aurora,  New  York,  U.  S.  A. 
MCMXVI 


* 


Copyright,  1911 

By  Elbert  Hubbard 

3rd  Edition 


GIFT 


STETSON  THE  MAN 

HIS  is  the  life-story  of  John  B.  Stetson, 
told  in  "  tabloid." 

Stetson  was  an  American  businessman. 
<I  He  is  one  of  the  moderns.  I  use  the 
word  "  is,"  because  the  influence  of  a 
great  personality  never  dies  s*»  The 
influence  of  the  man  is  with  us,  and 
his  soul  goes  marching  on. 
Stetson  was  a  workingman.  He  became 
master  of  a  trade  at  a  time  when  this 
trade  was  a  synonym  for  the  shiftless, 
the  unreliable,  the  erratic. 
"  Mad  as  a  hatter,"  was  a  saying  that 
passed  as  legal  tender  in  the  current  coin  of  language. 
Lewis  Carroll,  in  that  very  wise  and  foolish  book  entitled,  "Alice  in 
Wonderland,"  paid  his  respects  to  the  mad  hatter.  Various  other 
writers  have  done  the  same. 

The  old-time  hatter,  like  the  old-time  printer,  worked  when  he  felt 
like  it— and  a  good  deal  of  the  time  he  did  not  feel  like  it. 
He  was  filled  with  the  wanderlust,  and  to  take  off  his  apron  and  walk 
out  without  excuse  or  reason  was,  for  him,  a  very  natural  thing  to  do. 
<I  When  the  merry  hatter  received  his  pay  and  left  the  shop  Saturday 
night,  it  was  quite  likely  the  shop  did  not  see  him  until  along  about 
Tuesday  or  Wednesday,  and  then  it  took  him  the  better  part  of  a 
day  to  get  his  hand  in. 

It  is  probable  that  the  particular  trade  of  hatter  has  been  maligned, 
for  the  fact  is  that  one  hundred  years  ago  all  the  trades  were  very 
much  on  the  same  basis. 

A  Similar  Case 

HN  WESLEY  in  his  "Journal"  describes  the  condition  of 
the  potters  in  England,  during  his  time.  Hah*  their  earnings 
were  spent  for  strong  drink.  None  of  them  owned  their  homes.  They 
lived  in  long  lines  of  hovels,  from  which  they  were  evicted  when 
they  lost  their  inclination  or  their  capacity  for  work. 


231. 


Four  JOHN  B.  STETSON 

They  were  a  brawling,  bearbaiting,  restless,  shiftless,  unreliable  lot. 
They  had  no  gardens,  no  flowers,  no  books,  no  pictures — no  ambi- 
tions, no  ideals.  Very  few  of  them  could  read  and  write.  When  they 
attended  the  meetings  of  John  Wesley  they  often  showed  their 
appreciation  by  pelting  the  speaker  with  mud  balls. 
The  places  where  they  worked  were  sheds  or  small  shops,  managed 
by  a  man  who  lived  over  the  factory,  or  alongside,  and  looked  after 
his  dozen  workmen  as  best  he  could.  The  wares  they  made  were 
mostly  jugs  for  brewers. 

As  John  Wesley  rode  his  old  horse,  "  Timothy,"  through  this  Cum- 
berland potters'  district  one  day,  greatly  to  his  surprise  he  saw  a 
sight  that  caused  him  to  rein  in  his  horse  and  stop  and  stare  ."•«. 
It  was  a  flowerbed  in  front  of  a  little  house. 

John  Wesley  dismounted,  tied  his  horse  to  the  fence,  and  went  inside 
to  investigate.  That  night  he  wrote  in  his  Journal  these  words :  "  He 
is  small  and  lame,  but  he  loves  flowers  and  his  soul  is  near  to  God." 
fl  The  man  of  whom  he  wrote  was  Josiah  Wedgwood,  the  founder 
of  the  town  of  Etruria,  and  who  from  making  jugs  for  brewers 
evolved  the  art  of  making  vases. 

Incidentally,  Wedgwood  coined  the  word  "  Queensware,"  and  made 
tableware  of  a  sort  and  kind  so  that  it  came  into  general  use  among 
even  the  common  people,  taking  the  place  of  the  old-time  metal 
pot — from  which  each  member  of  the  household  dipped  and 
speared  as  suited  his*  own  inclination. 

Wedgwood  raised  pottery  from  a  trade  to  a  fine  art.  In  the  process 
he  became  rich,  and  he  made  hundreds  of  other  men  rich.  There 
is  not  a  household  in  Christendom  today  where  the  marks  of 
Wedgwood's  genius  are  not  shown. 

The  daughter  of  John  Wedgwood  became  the  mother  of  Charles 
Darwin.  Darwin  has  changed  the  thinking  complexion  of  the 
world ;  but  even  Darwin,  who  was  an  innovator,  did  not  do  more  for 
humanity  than  did  Josiah  Wedgwood. 

John  B.  Stetson  did  for  the  hatter's  trade  what  Wedgwood  had 
done  for  the  potter's. 


JOHN  B.  STETSON  Five 

Stetson  made  of  his  trade  a  business,  a  profession,  a  science,  an 
art.  He  did  the  thing  better  than  it  had  ever  been  done  before 
since  history  began. 

He  was  an  economist,  an  organizer  and  a  humanitarian.  Inci- 
dentally, he  became  rich,  and  he  made  thousands  of  other  people 
rich.  He  evolved  distinct  styles,  and  he  made  his  name  synonymous 
with  the  thing  he  manufactured. 

The  Word  Stetson 

HE  word  "  Stetson "  has  passed  into  the  current  com  of 
expression.  If  a  man  asks  for  a  "  Stetson  "  in  any  civilized 
country  in  the  world,  the  dealer  knows  what  he  wants;  and  will 
possibly  try  to  pass  him  out  "  something  just  as  good."  Wherever 
hats  are  mentioned  and  discussed  for  even  five  minutes  the  word 
"  Stetson  "  is  used.  If  a  man  wants  to  express  the  supreme  excel- 
lence of  a  hat  he  tells  his  customer,  "  It  is  a  Stetson,"  or  "  Just  as 
good  as  a  Stetson,"  or  "  Exactly  like  a  Stetson." 
But  no  dealer,  even  in  his  wildest  imaginings,  describes  the  hat  he 
offers  as  better  than  a  "  Stetson."  The  "  Stetson  "  is  the  standard. 
It  stands  for  beauty,  durability,  efficiency,  and  all  that  is  worth 
while  in  the  line  of  hats.  It  "  looks  "  and  it  lasts. 
Stetson  made  the  business  of  hatting  respectable. 
The  Evolution  of  the  Factory 

foHN  B.  STETSON  was  born  in  Orange,  New  Jersey,  in  Eight- 
een Hundred  Thirty.  He  died  in  Nineteen  Hundred  Six. 
His  was  a  life  of  constant  activity.  He  ran  the  gamut  from  poverty 
and  hardship  to  wealth. 

His  father  was  an  employing  hatter,  and  a  successful  one  according 
to  the  standard  of  the  times.  Stephen  Stetson  lived  over  his  shop 
and  worked  at  his  trade  in  the  good  old-time  way.  It  was  an  age  of 
handicrafts  ;*>  *•» 

All  manufacturing  was  once  done  in  the  homes.  The  entire  family 
worked  at  the  business,  and  the  trade  was  passed  along — whatever 
it  was — from  father  to  son.  The  sons,  the  daughters  and  the  mother 
all  worked,  too,  at  the  business.  Spinning,  weaving,  glass-blowing, 


Six  JOHN  B.  STETSON 

wood-carving,  and  the  making  of  lead-pencils,  cutlery  and  utensils 
of  every  kind  and  sort  were  done  in  the  homes. 
Each  of  the  great  factories  of  New  England  can  be  traced  back  to 
its  rise  when  by  the  kitchen  stove  the  master  of  the  house  worked 
out  an  idea  which  took  form  in  a  commodity  that  was  supplied  to 
his  neighbors,  being  traded  to  them  for  something  they  themselves 
made  «•»  .-*. 

Business  was  barter.  Perhaps  once  a  year  the  manufacturer  took  a 
load  of  his  wares  to  the  neighboring  fair,  and  there  in  his  booth  sold 
enough  to  buy  raw  stock  for  a  year. 

These  were  the  methods  continued  from  ancient  times  down  to  the 
invention  of  the  steam-engine,  and  for  a  good  many  years  after 
the  invention  of  the  steam-engine  the  methods  of  the  home  handi- 
crafts still  survived. 

The  complete  separation  of  the  home  from  the  factory  is  a  thing 
which  the  modern  man  has  seen  evolved.  Men  in  middle  life  now 
can  remember  a  day  when  the  principal  merchant  in  every  town 
and  village  lived  over  his  store,  shop  or  factory. 

Stetson  the  Elder 

TEPHEN  STETSON  was  making  money,  for  he  had  centered 
on  that  one  thing.  He  lived  in  New  Jersey,  but  he  had  the 
true  New  England  instincts.  He  saved,  and  saved  eternally.  He 
worked  and  he  compelled  every  one  else  to  work,  and  in  his  life 
there  were  very  few  play-spells. 

When  he  had  accumulated  fifty  thousand  dollars  he  was  accounted 
one  of  the  richest  men  in  the  business.  He  was  fifty  years  old,  and 
he  decided  he  would  retire  from  business  and  enjoy  himself — not 
knowing  that  happiness  is  a  habit,  and  if  you  do  not  get  your  happi- 
ness out  of  your  work  you  will  never  know  what  happiness  is. 
He  did  not  realize  that  to  retire  from  work  is  to  retire  from  life ;  so 
he  sold  out  his  prosperous  business,  and  the  money  he  had  made  in 
a  business  he  understood,  he  invested  in  one  he  knew  nothing  about. 
<I  And  the  result  was  that  his  investments  which  he  had  expected 
would  bring  him  in  ten  per  cent  or  more  without  effort,  melted  away 


JOHN  B.  STETSON  Seven 

into  thin  air.  9  Andrew  Carnegie's  maxim,  "  Put  all  your  eggs  in 
one  basket  and  then  watch  that  basket,"  had  not  then  been 
expressed.  The  business  that  prospers  is  the  business  that  is 
managed  by  the  men  who  built  it  up. 

The  elder  Stetson  passed  away,  whipped  out,  discouraged,  a  bank- 
rupt man,  and  his  sons  took  in  hand  the  raveled  shreds  of  his  busi- 
ness and  endeavored  to  build  it  up. 

Hardship  and  111  Health 

/JOHN  B.  was  one  of  the  younger  children,  and  the  older  ones, 
/y  filled  with  the  thought  of  primogeniture,  naturally  took  charge. 
<I  His  father  had  taught  him  the  trade.  But  education  outside  of 
one's  trade  among  the  hatters  was  then  regarded  as  quite  superflu- 
ous, so  the  lad  never  attended  school  a  day  in  his  life.  His  mother 
taught  him  to  read  and  write,  and  being  possessed  of  a  hungry  mind 
he  acquired  knowledge  as  the  days  passed.  Life  was  his  school  *» 
John  B.  Stetson  was  working  for  an  older  brother  by  the  day.  He 
made  hats,  taught  others  how,  sold  the  product,  bought  the  raw 
stock — and  the  brother  absorbed  the  profits  and  the  honors. 
So  we  find  the  brothers  separating,  and  John  B.  making  arrange- 
ments to  start  a  business  of  his  own.  Then  calamity  came  in  the 
way  of  ill  health.  The  doctors  said  John  B.  Stetson  had  consumption 
and  that  his  days  on  earth  were  few.  He  was  slight,  slim,  slender, 
nervous,  active,  and  the  type  of  person  who  goes  quick — or  lasts 
long,  as  the  case  may  be. 

But  John  B.  Stetson  was  not  to  die  just  then.  He  studied  his  own 
case  and  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  would  have  to  quit  the 
exacting  business  of  making  hats  and  get  out  in  the  open. 
He  struck  out  for  the  Far  West,  which  then,  in  the  late  Fifties, 
meant  Illinois. 

Fever  and  ague  were  then  the  one  crop  of  the  Middle  West. 
There  were  not  trees  enough  to  absorb  the  humidity,  and  the  over- 
turned sod  created  a  miasma,  and  this  transformed  the  prairies  into 
a  Campagna  of  "  shakes  "  similar  to  that  which  surrounded  Rome. 
<I  Stetson  shook,  and  shook  dice  with  Destiny.  He  was  burned  with 


Eight  JOHN  B.  STETSON 

fever  and  chilled  with  cold,  but  he  had  no  intention  of  going  back 

East.  If  he  was  going  to  die,  he  would  die  in  the  West,  and  he  pushed 

on  across  the  Mississippi  River,  through  to  the  rising  city  of  Saint 

Joseph,  Missouri. 

Saint  Joseph  was  a  trading-post  where  parties  fitted  out  for  Pike's 

Peak — seven  hundred  fifty  miles  away. 

At  Saint  Joseph,  Stetson  worked  in  a  brickyard ;  then  he  became 

manager  of  the  brickyard,  then  part  owner.  Clay  was  plentiful,  and 

wood  was  to  be  had  for  the  cutting.  He  made  money  and  invested 

it  all  in  the  business. 

His  brickyard  was  on  the  banks  of  the  Missouri.  He  had  made  up 

hah*  a  million  bricks  all  ready  to  burn,  arches  complete  and  filled 

with  wood,  fires  started,  when  lo !  the  fickle  and  finicky  Missouri 

River  went  on  a  rampage,  overflowed  its  banks,  rose  and  kept 

rising,  until  it  drove  the  firemen  out  of  Stetson's  brickyards. 

The  water  still  kept  rising. 

It  put  out  the  fires,  undermined  the  arches,  and  the  bricks  made 

without  straw  tumbled  in  a  mass. 

Soon  they  were  a  heap  of  mud,  which  the  yellow  waters  of  the 

Missouri  dissolved. 

Stetson's  fortune,  the  result  of  two  years  of  hard  work,  swirled  and 

swam  away  to  the  South.  Stetson  stood  on  a  hilltop  and  said :  "Let  'er 

go !  I  am  not  the  first  man  who  has  made  a  fortune  and  lost  it !  " 

9  The  Civil  War  was  on,  and  Stetson  tried  to  enlist,  but  his  physical 

disabilities  were  too  apparent  and  he  was  rejected. 

There  was  a  party  fitting  out  for  Pike's  Peak,  and  Stetson  was 

invited  to  become  one  of  the  members.  He  accepted  the  invitation 

and  they  started  away  on  foot,  a  dozen  young  men  headed  for  the 

Rocky  Mountains. 

Stetson's  health  was  still  precarious.  His  risk,  as  the  insurance 

men  would  say,  was  a  hazardous  one. 

In  any  event,  however,  he  would  not  be  a  care  to  society.  If  he  died, 

he  would  simply  drop  in  his  tracks  and  a  shallow  grave  would  be 

scooped  out  on  the  prairie  and  there  he  would  rest  in  his  last, 


JOHN  B.  STETSON  Nine 

long  sleep,  flf  It  was  June  and  the  rosinweed  rose  as  high  as  a  man's 
head,  across  the  prairies.  Clouds  of  wild  ducks  circled  over  the 
ponds.  The  prairie-chickens  drummed  on  the  little  hilltops.  The 
blue  cranes  threw  out  then*  sentinels,  strutted  and  called. 
Nature  was  at  her  loveliest  and  best. 

And  so  these  young  men  tramped,  following  the  trail  to  the  West, 
always  to  the  West,  and  as  they  journeyed,  health  and  happiness 
came  back  to  John  B.  Stetson. 

An  Object-Lesson 

[HEN  John  B.  Stetson  started  for  Pike's  Peak,  his  bag- 
gage consisted  of  the  clothes  upon  his  back,  a  shotgun 
and  a  hatchet.  His  companions,  a  dozen  or  so  in  number,  were 
similarly  equipped. 

Science,  with  all  its  wonderful  discoveries,  has  not  devised  a  better 
method  for  eradicating  the  Great  White  Plague  than  that  used  by 
Stetson.  It  was  out  of  doors  all  the  time,  under  the  blue  sky,  in  wind 
and  weather;  but  best  of  all  there  was  a  purpose,  an  objective 
point.  They  were  going  somewhere.  There  was  plenty  of  good-cheer 
and  banter,  and  so  they  walked. 

But  the  storms  came,  and  the  plains  and  the  prairies  were  wind- 
swept. At  night  they  had  no  shelter. 

In  this  extremity  they  resorted  to  a  plan  of  sewing  the  skins  of 
animals  together ;  muskrat,  rabbits,  beaver,  coyote,  were  plentiful, 
but  our  friends  had  no  method  of  tanning  the  skins,  and  there  is  a 
certain,  serious  objection  to  using  green  skins  for  clothing  purposes 
in  the  Summertime,  that  need  not  here  be  cited. 
Shelter-tents,  just  big  enough  to  crawl  into,  were  easy  enough  to 
make  with  the  help  of  skins.  But  these  skins  were  thrown  away 
when  the  sun  came  out,  and  the  hope  and  prayer  was  that  the  storms 
would  not  again  come. 

Then  it  was  that  Stetson  showed  his  companions  an  object-lesson 
in  science  one  fine  day  as  they  were  sitting  on  the  bank  of  the 
stream  with  their  feet  dabbling  in  the  water.  The  thing  that  Stetson 
explained  to  his  friends  was  something  they  had  never  heard  of,  and 


Ten  JOHN  B.  STETSON 

at  once  it  caused  a  big  argument.  Things  people  have  never  heard 
of  they  usually  denounce  as  impossible.  And  while  they  are  saying 
that  this  thing  can  never  be  done,  some  fellow  just  goes  ahead 
and  does  it ! 

The  question  turned  on  securing  cloth  for  shelter-tents.  One  man 
made  the  flat,  dogmatic  statement  that  cloth  was  made  by  weaving, 
and  that  it  could  not  be  made  in  any  other  way. 
Stetson  stood  out  that  there  was  another  scheme  for  making  cloth. 
<I  All  the  others  denounced  him  and  voted  him  a  theorist ;  so,  to 
prove  his  case,  Stetson  expounded  to  them  the  science  of  felting. 
<I  This  is  a  branch  of  knowledge  that  is  as  old  as  glass-making  c+> 
It  goes  back  to  the  time  of  Moses,  who  led  the  Children  of  Israel  out 
of  captivity  fifteen  centuries  before  Christ.  It  was  known  to  Homer 
and  Hesiod,  for  they  mention  the  scheme  in  their  writings.  Pythag- 
oras, six  hundred  years  before  Christ,  made  cloth  by  the  felting 
process,  and  as  far  as  we  know,  the  first  fabrics  were  made  of  felt, 
and  weaving  came  hi  as  an  afterthought. 

And  the  world  does  not  yet  understand  the  science  of  felting,  any 
more  than  it  understands  the  science  of  electricity  or  the  making 
of  concrete.  All  we  know  is  that  the  thing  can  be  done. 
Stetson  explained  these  facts  to  his  friends  and  received  the  merry 
ha-ha,  and  the  doubtful  te-he  by  way  of  applause.  Now  here  is  a 
story  that  was  told  me  for  fact,  but  when  I  once  asked  Stetson  about 
it,  he  only  laughed  and  said  I  should  not  believe  half  I  heard.  How- 
ever, I  still  believe  the  tale  is  sure  enough  true,  and  so  I  give  it, 
nothing  extenuating  and  setting  down  naught  in  malice.  So  here 
goes :  Stetson  took  some  of  the  skins  that  his  friends  had  discarded, 
sharpened  up  his  hatchet  on  a  convenient  stone,  and  shaved  the 
fur  off  the  skins. 

He  then  cut  a  bit  of  a  hickory  sapling ;  sliced  off  a  thong  from  one 
of  the  skins,  and  made  a  hunter's  bow.  With  this  bow  he  agitated 
the  fur  so  as  to  keep  it  in  a  regular  little  cloud  in  the  air. 
Here  is  a  process  known  to  all  old-time  hatters,  but  which  can  only 
be  done  by  an  expert.  It  requires  about  as  much  talent  and  skill  to 


JOHN  B.  STETSON  Eleven 

manipulate  a  hunter's  bow  as  it  does  to  play  the  violin.  Nowadays 

the  fur  is  manipulated  by  a  machine  fan  and  allowed  to  settle,  but 

the  principle  is  the  same. 

Stetson  kept  the  fur  in  the  air,  and  then  it  fell  gently  by  its  own 

weight,  and  was  very  naturally  distributed  over  a  certain  space. 

As  it  fell,  Stetson,  with  mouth  full  of  water,  after  the  manner  of 

John  Chinaman,  blew  a  fine  spray  of  moisture  through  the  fur. 

Soon  there  was  a  mat  of  fur  that  could  be  lifted  up  and  rolled. 

It  was  like  a  thin  sheet  of  wet  paper. 

There  was  a  campfire  near,  and  a  pot  of  boiling  water,  and  into  this 

boiling  water  Stetson  dipped  his  sheet  of  matted  fur. 

It  began  to  shrink. 

By  manipulating  it  with  his  hands,  and  rapidly  dipping  it  in  the  hot 

water,  he  soon  had  a  little  blanket,  woven  soft  and  even  of  perfect  cloth. 

<I  The  argument  that  the  thing  could  not  be  done  faded  away  into  the 

nothingness.  Nobody  said,  "  I  told  you  so !  " 

There  was  the  actual  thing — cloth  made  by  the  felting  process — 

one  of  the  oldest  devices  of  the  human  mind. 

It  was  only  recently  that  the  microscope  showed  us  that  hair  and 

fur  are  not  made  up  of  straight,  reedlike  strands,  but  that  every 

individual  hair  is  covered  with  small  hooks,  branches  or  prongs, 

and  that  when  stimulated  by  hot  water  these  prongs  show  a  great 

tendency  to  cling  to  each  other  and  will  crawl  or  creep  on  after  the 

manner  of  "  tickle-grass."  And  the  youngster  who  does  not  know 

about  tickle-grass  is  to  be  pitied. 

In  the  good  old  times  when  I  went  to  the  little  red  schoolhouse 

arrayed  simply  in  two  garments,  a  runabout  and  trousers  buttoned 

thereto,  tickle-grass  came  in  as  a  scientific  wonder.  You  simply 

started  the  thing  up  your  trouser-leg  and  it  came  out  at  your  collar, 

or  where  your  collar  should  have  been. 

The  First  "Stetson" 

[E  principle  of  the  single  strand  of  fur  is  exactly  the  same  as 
that  of  the  tickle-grass.  But  the  tickle-grass  we  see  with  our 
wide-open  eyes,  and  the  other  is  only  manifest  by  the  use  of  the 


Twelve  JOHN  B.  STETSON 

microscope.  The  shrinking  of  felt  is  caused  by  the  fibers  interlocking, 
seizing  upon  each  other  and  creeping  close.  It  is  a  form  of  physical 
affinity.  Just  why  it  is  so  we  do  not  know,  but  the  fact  remains. 
Cotton  does  not  shrink  or  creep,  because  it  has  n't  the  feet. 
And  the  story  goes  that  Stetson's  traveling  companions  were  so 
delighted  with  his  experiment  that  they  immediately  went  to  work 
killing  jack-rabbits,  beavers  and  skunks  and  any  other  of  the  fur- 
bearing  animals  they  could  get.  Then  under  Stetson's  directions  they 
made  felt  tents  that  effectually  turned  the  water,  to  the  delight  and 
astonishment  of  the  troopers  on  horseback  and  afoot,  and  in  the 
prairie-schooners,  that  were  wending  their  way  to  the  West. 
Hats  then  were  more  or  less  of  a  luxury.  Indians  got  along  quite 
well  without  hats.  So  did  our  friends  in  the  pioneer  days. 
In  Winter,  the  Davy  Crockett  fashion  was  in  vogue. 
The  coonskin  cap,  with  its  dangling  tail,  was  picturesque  and  service- 
able, but  in  Summertime  it  certainly  had  its  disadvantages  in  way 
of  moths  and  fleas.  If  you  left  your  cap  unguarded,  some  hungry 
dog  would  probably  carry  it  off.    To  amuse  his  friends,  Stetson  made 
a  hat  out  of  the  felt.  It  was  big  and  picturesque.  It  protected  the 
wearer  from  the  wind  and  rain,  as  well  as  from  the  scorching  sun. 
<J  Besides  all  this,  it  attracted  considerable  attention.  It  made  the 
wearer  the  object  of  envy,  ridicule  or  admiration,  as  the  case  may 
be.  But  the  ribald  ones  ceased  to  revile  when  a  bullwhacker  on 
horseback,  gaily  seated  on  a  silver-mounted  saddle  from  Mexico, 
looked  upon  Stetson's  hat  with  envious  eyes  and  then  offered  the 
owner  a  five-dollar  gold-piece  for  it. 
This  was  the  first  genuine  Stetson  hat  made  and  sold. 
That  it  would  eventually  lead  up  to  a  great  industry,  no  one  guessed ; 
but  it  was  the  germ  of  an  enterprise  that  was  to  be  worldwide  in  its 
influence. 

Life  is  Life 

E  little  band  of  pioneers  reached  Pike's  Peak,  and  dis- 
covered  that  life  is  life  wherever  you  go,  and  that  about  all 
you  have  is  what  you  carry  with  you. 


JOHN  B.  STETSON  Thirteen 

A  few  of  those  Western  miners  made  money.  Some  left  their 
bones  along  the  winding  way ;  others  died  in  the  diggings.  Most  of 
them  gambled  and  wasted  their  substance,  whenever  they  had  any. 
<I  Brigham  Young's  advice  to  the  Mormons  was :  "  Raise  vegetables 
and  feed  the  miners,  and  you  will  all  grow  rich.  If  you  mine  for  gold 
a  very  few  of  you  will  make  money,  but  the  most  of  you  will  die 
in  poverty." 

A  year  passed,  and  health  and  strength  had  come  back  to  Stetson. 
He  was  big  and  strong,  able  and  ambitious — full  of  ideas.  He 
decided  that  he  would  go  back  to  the  East — back  to  the  city  that 
Benjamin  Franklin  had  done  so  much  to  make.  There  he  would 
work  out  his  dream  and,  if  possible,  build  up  a  business. 
He  could  do  this  one  thing.  He  was  a  feltmaker  and  a  hatter.  He 
had  the  skill  of  fingers  and  the  talent  to  do.  And  so  back  to  Phila- 
delphia he  went,  with  his  scanty  earnings  made  in  the  diggings. 

Trials  and  Difficulties 

EACHING  Philadelphia,  he  had  one  hundred  dollars  left.  He 
bought  the  tools  of  his  trade,  rented  a  little  room  at  Seventh 
and  Callowhill  Streets,  and  started  to  work  making  hats.  To  buy 
the  fur  and  make  the  felt  was  the  first  thing  to  do. 
Stetson  had  no  credit,  but  ten  dollars'  worth  of  fur  was  all  that 
was  required  to  start. 

He  studied  the  fashions  that  were  in  vogue,  and  made  the  sort  of 
hat  that  seemed  to  be  in  demand.  He  peddled  these  out  at  the 
stores  of  the  dealers,  one,  two,  three,  half  a  dozen  at  a  time. 
He  saw,  however,  that  if  he  simply  made  hats  like  those  that  others 
were  making,  working  only  to  duplicate  these,  he  would  be  but  a 
molecule  in  the  mass.  He  wanted  to  do  something  different — to 
start  a  style.  And  so  he  made  a  hat  slightly  different  from  that  worn 
by  the  fashionables  &+•  Putting  one  of  these  on  his  head  he  walked 
around  from  dealer  to  dealer,  doffing  his  hat  and  telling  them  he 
could  duplicate  it. 

The  dealers  smiled  in  derision,  saying  that  fashions  came  from  across 
the  sea,  and  that  to  start  a  new  one  was  not  to  be  thought  of. 


Fourteen  JOHN  B.  STETSON 

Then  he  went  back  to  his  shop  and  ironed  an  extra  curl  to  the  brim, 
gave  the  hat  a  new  twist  and  started  out  again.  He  was  going  to  meet 
the  prejudices  of  the  dealers.  Again  he  was  forced  to  return,  unsuc- 
cessful. Over  and  over  again  he  endeavored  to  start  his  new  fashion. 
9  Finally,  one  day,  he  went  out  wearing  a  hat  made  of  very  fine, 
soft  felt.  He  had  made  this  hat  from  the  finest  fur  that  he  could 
procure,  and  his  endeavor  was  to  make  the  lightest  hat  possible.  A 
felt  hat  weighs  anywhere  from  two  to  four  ounces.  This  hat  that 
Stetson  wore  weighed  two.  Stetson  gave  a  vicious  curl  to  his  mous- 
tache and  a  cock  that  matched  to  the  hat,  and  twisting  his  hat  over 
one  eye,  he  started  again  on  his  rounds  among  the  dealers. 
He  assumed  a  rowdy,  Beau  Brummel  appearance,  aping  the  ultra- 
fashionables,  and  as  he  swaggered  into  a  store  his  dapper  appear- 
ance got  the  attention  of  a  customer  who  eyed  him  with  approval. 
<I  Stetson  took  off  his  hat  and  showed  it  to  the  dealer  in  the  presence 
of  the  customer  who  stood  by.  The  customer  became  interested 
and  bought  the  hat  on  the  spot.  The  dealer  gave  Stetson  an  order 
for  a  dozen. 

This  was  the  first  order  for  a  dozen  hats  that  he  had  received,  and 
he  had  been  working  the  market  for  six  months. 
He  hastened  back  to  his  shop,  took  all  the  money  he  had,  went  out 
and  bought  the  finest  fur  that  he  could  procure,  and  started  to  fill 
the  order  $*>  to 

From  this  time  on  he  had  plenty  of  work.  The  margins,  however, 
were  very  close.  Customers  would  not  pay  more  than  two  dollars 
for  a  hat,  and  they  said  that  this  was  such  a  little  one  anyway,  that 
it  was  not  worth  more. 

Every  Monday  morning  Stetson  bought  ten  dollars'  worth  of  fur. 
The  fur  came  in  batches  and  was  carried  up  the  creaking  stairways 
by  a  lusty  Irishman  who  flopped  the  bale  upon  the  floor  and  waited 
stolidly  for  his  money.  The  mail  during  the  week  brought  enough 
to  pay  for  the  fur,  but  barely  enough,  and  one  Monday  morning 
when  Stetson  opened  the  last  letter  that  had  come  to  him,  he  dis- 
covered that  he  had  not  enough  money  to  pay  for  the  bale  of  fur 


JOHN  B.  STETSON  Fifteen 

that  would  soon  arrive.  He  knew  the  Irishman  was  on  the  way  with 
his  wheelbarrow.  Soon  he  would  have  to  make  the  humiliating 
confession  that  he  could  not  pay.  What  to  do  was  the  thing  he  was 
revolving  in  his  mind. 

He  heard  the  man  come  up  the  stairs.  He  saw  him  enter  with  the 
load  upon  his  shoulders.  The  Irishman  gave  the  bale  a  toss  and  it 
fell  with  a  thud  to  the  floor,  raising  a  cloud  of  dust.  And  as  it  fell, 
the  Irishman  remarked  in  a  hot-mush  brogue :  "  The  ould  man  says 
that  yez  need  n't  moind  about  sinding  the  money  for  a  week  or  so. 
Jes'  suit  yersilf." 

And  then  the  son  of  Hibernia  disappeared  down  the  stairway. 
Stetson  sat  dumb  with  surprise;  and  tears  ran  down  his  cheeks. 
From  that  day  forward  he  was  a  believer  in  what  our  friend  Socrates 
called  the  "  Demon."  Some  call  it  "  Providence,"  others  call  it 
"  Luck."  Stetson  never  formulated  it,  but  the  belief  was  always  his 
that  God  was  on  his  side,  and  that  whatever  he  did  would  prove  to 
be  right  and  proper  and  best ;  that  no  matter  how  dark  the  clouds, 
light  would  break  through. 

This  compelling  faith  in  himself  and  in  destiny  never  forsook  him 
in  all  his  long  career. 

The  Big  Idea 

was  only  a  few  days  after  his  receiving  credit  without  asking 
for  it,  that  he  decided  to  stake  his  all  on  a  venture  that  no  hatter 
had  before  attempted.  The  bullwhacker  on  the  plains  who  had  sepa- 
rated himself  from  a  five-dollar  gold-piece  for  a  very  crude  kind  of 
hat,  rose  before  him  like  an  apparition.  Instead  of  depending  upon 
the  local  trade  of  the  hatters  of  Philadelphia  and  haggling  with  them 
as  to  prices,  Stetson  decided  to  take  all  the  money  he  had  and  make 
a  big,  fine,  picturesque  hat  for  the  Cattle  Kings. 
He  would  call  his  hat  "  The  Boss  of  the  Plains." 
He  had  gotten  a  list  of  the  clothing  and  hat  dealers  hi  every  city 
and  town  of  the  Southwest,  and  he  would  send  each  of  these  one  of 
his  big  hats  with  a  letter  asking  for  an  order  for  a  dozen ! 
This  would  either  make  or  break  him,  but  he  believed  that  destiny 


Sixteen  JOHN  B.  STETSON 

was  with  him.  So  he  spent  all  his  money  for  material  and  then  ran 
in  debt  to  the  very  limit  of  his  credit.  He  made  his  big,  natural- 
colored  hats,  four-inch  brim  and  four-inch  top,  with  a  strap  for  a 
band — and  out  went  the  hat  to  the  West  by  express  or  by  mail. 
Whether  the  hat,  or  orders,  would  ever  come  back  was  the  question. 
Two  weeks  passed  and  the  orders  were  coming,  "  Send  a  dozen  hats 
just  like  the  sample."  Some  of  the  men  sent  cash  with  their  orders, 
saying  that  they  wanted  their  orders  given  the  preference. 
This  gave  Stetson  a  clew.  He  sent  out  more  samples  as  fast  as  he 
could,  making  the  suggestion  that  if  a  man  wanted  his  hats  by 
return  express,  he  should  send  the  money  in  advance. 
This  new  hat,  "  The  Boss  of  the  Plains,"  was  made  of  one-grade 
material  and  retailed  at  five  dollars ;  then  in  finer  material  to  sell  for 
ten  dollars ;  then  in  extra-fine  fur  made  from  pure  beaver  or  nutria. 
These  hats  sold  for  as  much  as  thirty  dollars  apiece.  Money  came, 
and  the  orders  were  piling  up. 

From  this  time  on  the  story  of  the  business  of  John  B.  Stetson  reads 
like  a  romance.  No  tale  of  the  imagination  written  by  Sir  Walter 
Scott  equals  it.  Stetson  did  things  that  Sir  Walter  could  never  even 
imagine.  He  introduced  initiative  into  the  business.  Stetson  was  a 
creator,  a  dealer,  a  scout  of  civilization. 

He  marched  always  in  the  vanguard,  and  he  introduced  patterns 
which,  seemingly,  can  not  be  improved  on  today. 
The  great  business  of  the  John  B.  Stetson  Company  has  doubled  in 
volume  since  his  death.  But  the  increase  has  all  been  by  a  close 
application  to  the  methods  laid  down  by  the  dead  chief.  Being  dead 
he  yet  lives. 

The  Growing  "West 

HEN  a  thing  is  known  it  ceases  to  be  either  deep,  strange 
or  profound. 

But  we  wonder  why,  when  Stetson  sold  his  first,  big,  picturesque 
hat  there  on  the  plains  of  Colorado,  the  thought  did  not  at  once 
come  to  him  that  there  was  a  market  for  such  wares ! 
The  fact  was  that  pioneers  were  poor.  Hats  were  more  or  less  of  a 


CHRISTMAS  MEETING 


STETSON  EMPLOYEES 


JOHN  B.  STETSON  Seventeen 

luxury,  and  the  possibilities  of  the  West  were  to  Stetson  absolutely 
unguessed,  just  as  they  were  to  Napoleon  when  he  sold  that  whole 
vast  territory  for  a  fraction  of  a  cent  per  acre  «»  It  is  doubtful 
whether  forty  or  so  years  ago  any  living  man  imagined  the  extent 
of  the  wealth  that  now  exists  in  America.  Stetson  did  not  know 
that  there  was  even  then  a  growing  class  of  Western  aristocrats, 
men  immensely  wealthy  from  the  sale  of  cattle,  who  were  coming 
into  power. 

When  we  are  in  the  midst  of  a  thing  we  do  not  see  it.  Perspective  is 
necessary;  and  the  thought  of  supplying  a  distinctive  hat  for  the 
aristocrats  of  the  West  did  not  come  to  him  until  a  certain  fateful 
day  in  Philadelphia,  when  he  had  tried  everything  else  and  only 
saw  hardship  ahead. 

Stetson  could  always  remember  the  exact  time  and  spot  when  it 
came  over  him  that  he  could  get  away  absolutely  from  competition 
by  making  a  hat  for  the  cattle  kings.  The  name,  "Boss  of  the  Plains," 
seized  upon  him,  and  to  supply  this  market  became  the  one  con- 
trolling object  of  his  life.  He  actually  became  fevered  over  it.  Sub- 
sequent events  proved  the  truth  of  his  prophecy. 

A  Man  of  Faith 

TETSON  was  distinctly  a  religious  man  in  the  highest  sense. 

His  love  for  his  work  and  his  workers  was  absorbing,  and 
his  faith  was  the  guiding  star  of  his  life.  This  gave  him  courage 
and  good-cheer,  even  in  the  face  of  seeming  disaster.  He  knew  that 
all  would  be  well.  His  firm  faith  in  the  Good  was  a  strong  factor 
in  his  success. 

The  hat  known  as  the  "B.  O.  P."  was  a  modified  Mexican  sombrero. 
It  was  a  sombrero  with  a  college  education.  The  limit  of  Stetson's 
business  from  this  on  was  his  ability  to  manufacture. 
From  making  one  style  he  began  to  make  many.  The  vogue  spread, 
and  it  became  a  fixed  fact  to  the  man  of  the  West  that  for  service 
and  utility,  and  to  the  man  of  the  East  that  for  style,  he  must  wear 
a  "Stetson."  A  "Stetson"  stands  for  success.  Stetson's  faith 
was  contagious. 


Eighteen  JOHN  B.  STETSON 

So  far  as  I  know,  no  great  business  was  ever  built  up  equal  in 
volume  to  this  with  such  a  minimum  of  advertising.  Our  scientific 
friends  tell  us  that  advertising  is  an  economic  waste.  This  is  cer- 
tainly true.  Advertising  is  telling  who  you  are,  what  you  are,  where 
you  are  and  what  you  have  to  offer  the  world  hi  the  way  of  service 
or  commodity.  The  only  man  who  should  not  advertise  is  the  man 
who  has  nothing  to  offer. 

At  the  same  time,  there  is  no  finer  way  hi  the  world  to  waste  money 
than  in  advertising.  Very  few  advertisers  indeed  know  ho  much 
of  a  return  they  are  getting. 

Stetson  was  the  first  man  to  say,  "There  is  no  advertisement  equal 
to  a  well-pleased  customer."  He  endeavored  to  make  a  hat  which 
would  so  please  the  customer  that  he  would  show  it  and  explain  to 
others  where  he  got  it.  The  Stetson  hat  in  looks  and  wear  proved  its 
worth  to  the  wearer  and  his  friends,  and  the  trademark  which 
Stetson  was  proud  to  put  in  it  told  the  name  of  the  maker  and 
where  he  lived.  Thus  every  man  who  wore  a  "  Stetson  "  was  an 
advertising  agent  for  John  B.  Stetson. 

The  Hat  as  a  Symbol 

SUPPOSE  it  need  not  be  explained  that  a  hat  is  not  concealed 
on  the  person.  It  surmounts  a  man's  dome  of  thought.  It 
occupies  the  proudest  position  in  all  that  goes  to  make  up  his  haber- 
dashery and  toggery.  In  togs  the  hat  certainly  occupies  first  place. 
The  hat  is  a  sort  of  modified  crown.  There  is  a  certain  tendency  hi 
the  human  heart  which  prompts  the  individual  to  show  his  social 
status  in  his  hat.  The  hat  reveals  the  mood  of  mind  which  the  indi- 
vidual possesses. 

We  bestow  honors  by  touching  the  hat-brim  or  lifting  the  hat  s^ 
Thus  we  symbol  our  mental  attitude  toward  an  individual.  There 
are  people  before  whom  we  stand  uncovered,  and  there  are  others 
in  the  presence  of  whom  we  stolidly  pull  our  hat  down. 
William  Penn  was  born  with  his  hat  on  and  never  removed  it,  even 
hi  the  presence  of  royalty.  Thus  did  he  manifest  his  ego.  And  from 
Beau  Brummel,  who  wore  a  towering  hat  with  a  dinky  brim,  we 


JOHN  B.  STETSON  Nineteen 

run  the  hat  gamut  to  George  Fox,  who  reached  equilibrium  in 
breadth  of  brim.  On  Beau  Brummel's  hat  was  a  fluttering  flummery 
of  ribbons  of  various  hues,  but  the  hat  worn  by  George  Fox  was 
absolutely  without  ornament.  The  Mexican  will  ride  out  from  his 
hacienda  on  a  ten-dollar  horse  and  a  one-hundred-dollar  saddle, 
wearing  a  forty-dollar  hat  and  a  three-dollar  suit  of  clothes. 
The  thing  that  got  the  eye  of  the  American  cattle  king  was  size, 
simplicity,  quality,  individuality — something  that  was  unique  and 
genuine  *•»  &+ 

Stetson,  instead  of  advertising  his  hats  or  sending  out  traveling 
men,  shipped  a  sample  hat  by  express  to  every  dealer.  Later  on,  he 
discovered  that  the  men  in  a  town  he  sold  attracted  to  themselves 
pretty  much  of  the  hat  trade. 

The  hats  for  which  Stetson  received  orders  when  they  reached  the 
dealer  usually  proved  to  be  a  little  better  article  than  the  man 
expected.  Stetson  aimed  to  disappoint  his  customers  on  this  side. 
If  there  were  any  surprises,  he  surprised  the  man  by  giving  him 
a  better  hat  than  he  expected.  And  I  heard  the  designer  of  today 
say,  "Any  hat,  moth-eaten  or  defective,  is  good  enough  for  a 
sample,  but  none  is  too  perfect  for  a  merchant  to  sell  or  a  man  to 
wear."  And  the  merchant  and  the  wearer  know  that  the  hat  they  buy 
will  be  up  to  the  Stetson  Standard,  regardless  of  the  sample  $+ 
Stetson  disarmed  criticism  by  absolute  honesty,  absolute  integrity ; 
and  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn,  he  was  the  first  hatter  to 
adopt  the  one-price  system  and  refuse  to  sell  any  dealer  who  cut  or 
jockeyed  prices. 

In  less  than  a  year  after  Stetson  began  to  make  the  hat  known  as 
the  "  Boss  of  the  Plains,"  he  gave  up  the  Philadelphia  local  trade 
entirely,  and  in  the  interests  of  economy  moved  from  the  business 
district  to  Fourth  Street  and  Montgomery  Avenue,  three  miles  out. 
He  was  clear  in  the  suburbs  of  the  city.  The  wise  ones  said  that  no 
man  could  do  business  so  far  out  of  town ;  others  said  the  land  he 
bought  was  not  worth  the  money.  But  the  days  went  by,  as  the  days 
do,  and  now  the  Stetson  factory  is  practically  in  the  middle  of  the 


Twenty  JOHN  B.  STETSON 

city,  and  a  great  deal  of  the  most  valuable  real  estate  is  still  beyond 
the  Stetson  works.  It  became  an  axiom  in  the  minds  of  the  people 
who  knew  Stetson  that  wherever  he  bought  real  estate  prosperity 
would  follow. 

The  Idea  Expands 

HEN  the  Stetson  factory  was  built  in  the  suburbs,  it  was  a 
-three-story  building  one  hundred  feet  long  and  thirty  feet 
wide.  It  was  beyond  the  needs  of  the  concern,  but  Stetson's  prophetic 
vision  saw  it  filled  with  happy,  prosperous  and  intelligent  workers. 
fl  The  first  thing  to  do  was  to  transform  the  shiftless,  indifferent,  im- 
pulsive, drinking,  tramp  hatter  into  a  reliable  and  earnest  individual. 
<I  It  was  discovered  that  the  men  who  were  saving  money  soon  evolved 
a  degree  of  integrity  and  intelligence  which  the  tramp  hatter  did 
not  possess.  Some  of  the  men  planned  for  building  homes.  This  idea 
grew  and  from  it  sprang  the  Stetson  Building  and  Loan  Association. 
<I  If  Philadelphia  is  "  The  City  of  Homes,"  Stetson  made  use  of  the 
favorable  local  conditions  to  encourage  his  men  to  build  or  to  buy 
homes  of  their  own,  and  in  the  years  of  growth  of  the  business, 
this  idea,  worked  out  through  the  Building  and  Loan  Association, 
developed  to  such  an  extent  that  a  large  portion  of  the  Stetson 
employees  became  householders  in  their  own  right.  These  homes 
were  so  numerous  and  so  attractive  in  their  varied  styles  that  they 
drew  the  attention  of  the  United  States  Government,  and  the  Bureau 
of  Labor  made  a  special  study  of  the  results  of  the  operation  of  the 
Stetson  Building  and  Loan  Association,  displaying  facts  and  figures 
with  numerous  pictures  of  houses  in  an  exhibit  at  the  Louisiana 
Purchase  Exposition. 

The  apprentice  system  adopted  by  Stetson  was  absolutely  unique. 
He  paid  the  beginner  a  fair  wage,  with  an  understanding  that  if 
the  boy  remained  during  the  apprentice  period  he  would  receive 
a  fixed  bonus  for  every  week  he  worked.  Here  was  a  chance  to 
learn  a  trade  and  secure  a  snug  saving  at  the  same  time.  It  was  a 
master-stroke  in  binding  to  him  able  and  reliable  men.  This  idea 
grew  and  was  worked  out  later  in  all  departments  in  a  big  way  s>+ 


JOHN  B.  STETSON  Twenty-one 

Today  all  the  employees  in  the  great  factory,  in  which  fifty-five 
hundred  people  are  working,  are  sharing  in  the  profits  of  the  busi- 
ness through  a  system  of  bonuses.  Starting  many  years  ago,  Stetson 
offered  on  Christmas  a  small  bonus  to  be  paid  the  next  Christmas 
to  those  men  who  worked  continuously  and  faithfully  throughout 
the  year.  While,  the  first  year,  not  a  large  percentage  of  the  men 
earned  the  bonus,  the  result  was  sufficiently  satisfactory  to  induce 
the  offering  of  a  larger  bonus  the  following  year  and  the  extension 
of  the  plan  to  the  workers  in  other  departments.  The  bonus  is 
in  some  departments  as  high  as  twenty  per  cent,  so  that  the  em- 
ployee who  has  earned  during  the  year  one  thousand  dollars 
receives  two  hundred  as  a  substantial  Christmas  reminder  of  his 
share  in  the  prosperity  of  the  business. 

When  last  Christmas  I  saw  fifty-five  hundred  happy  workers  gather 
in  the  great  Stetson  auditorium,  all  singing  heartily  in  the  intervals 
of  receiving  their  bonuses,  it  was  clear  that  Stetson  had  made  life 
worth  while. 

A  Friend  to  All 

E  secret  of  the  success  of  John  B.  Stetson  turned  first  on 
meeting  the  market  with  a  quality  and  style  of  hat  such  as 
was  in  demand.  The  next  thing  was  managing  the  workmen  so  as 
to  evolve  about  him  a  big  Stetson  family,  a  family  of  happy,  healthy, 
effective  workers. 

A  JOURNEY  TO  THE  HOME  OF  JOHN  B.  STETSON  is  no  mis- 
nomer for  a  visit  to  the  Stetson  factory.  Stetson  so  thoroughly 
identified  himself  with  the  life  as  well  as  the  work  of  the  factory 
that  it  may  well  be  called  his  home. 

Stetson  was  on  friendly  terms  with  all  his  people ;  called  them  by 
their  first  names ;  shook  hands  with  them  when  they  met ;  took  a 
friendly  interest  in  their  affairs. 

When  the  gathering  of  physical  years  came  upon  him  and  the 
multiplied  number  of  employees  made  it  impossible  longer  to  con- 
tinue the  personal  contact  with  each,  he  still  maintained  his  general 
interest  and  activity. 


Twenty-two  JOHN  B.  STETSON 

He  was  always  a  stickler  for  fresh  air  and  sunshine.  This  idea  had 
been  impressed  upon  him  in  a  tragic  way  through  his  close  call 
from  death  by  tuberculosis.  Always  he  loved  the  sunshine.  His  offices 
and  factory  were  flooded  with  light.  He  urged  his  people  when  they 
built  houses  to  build  facing  the  South  and  the  East,  and  was  often 
on  hand  to  suggest,  advise  and  encourage. 

John  B.  Stetson  was  too  busy  to  go  to  a  doctor,  so  when  need  arose 
his  physician  came  to  see  him  in  his  own  office.  Thinking  of  others, 
Stetson  got  the  habit  of  bringing  in  such  of  his  employees  as  needed 
treatment.  This  idea,  like  all  of  his,  enlarged.  His  own  physician's 
services  were  outgrown.  Specialists  in  various  lines  were  called  in. 
A  day  came  when  Stetson  found  that  if  he  was  to  have  an  office  to 
call  his  own  that  was  not  a  clinic  and  dispensary  he  must  make 
other  arrangements.  And  he  built  a  hospital. 
Nor  would  he  confine  this  to  the  relief  of  his  employees  only.  Its 
benefits  were  free  to  all.  Twice  has  the  work  of  the  hospital  out- 
grown its  building  equipment,  and  today  a  modern  building  with  a 
staff  of  thirty  physicians  and  unsurpassed  facilities  is  ever  ready  to 
cure  or  relieve  the  ills  not  only  of  the  workers  hi  the  Stetson  factory 
but  of  the  community  surrounding  it. 

The  prevention  of  illness  has  been  even  more  effective.  No  expense 
in  building  and  sanitation  has  been  spared  to  make  workrooms 
comfortable  and  healthful.  The  history  of  the  business  has  been  a 
constant  succession  of  tearing  down  old  structures  and  building 
new  to  secure  the  maximum  of  light  and  air.  Figures  show  the  result. 
The  Secretary  of  the  Beneficial  Association  pointed  out  to  me  that, 
while  years  ago  to  meet  the  sick  and  death  benefits  an  occasional 
extra  assessment  was  necessary  in  addition  to  the  regular  monthly 
dues,  no  such  assessment  has  been  made  in  the  past  seven  years. 
From  the  regular  dues  a  surplus  has  accumulated,  so  that  these  dues 
are  now  frequently  passed.  Through  sanitation  and  careful  fil- 
tration of  water,  typhoid  has  practically  disappeared  and  tubercu- 
losis is  no  longer  the  hatters*  bugbear. 
And  through  this  unselfish — or  if  you  please  to  call  it,  selfish— 


JOHN  B.  STETSON  Twenty-three 

interest  in  his  workers,  the  tramp  hatter  disappeared  from  the 
Stetson  factory  and  there  grew  up  a  big  band  of  healthy,  strong, 
intelligent  people. 

Then  came  in  organization,  a  division  of  labor,  with  department 
heads,  and  these  department  heads  were  his  marshals.  They  were 
paid  a  goodly  wage  and  given  an  interest  in  the  business. 
No  employer  of  labor  ever  got  a  more  loyal  service  from  his  helpers 
than  did  John  B.  Stetson.  The  Stetson  people,  instead  of  planning 
or  scheming  for  ease  and  how  they  could  get  out  of  work,  turned 
their  attention  to  helping  the  factory.  They  felt  they  were  part  of 
the  concern,  and  to  cheat  the  institution  was  to  cheat  themselves. 
<I  The  employer  who  can  bring  to  bear  this  consciousness  in  the 
mind  of  the  worker  has  achieved  a  great  victory  over  human  inertia. 
<I  Stetson  believed  in  his  people  and  they  believed  in  him.  He  dif- 
fused an  atmosphere  of  good-cheer,  of  ambition,  wherever  he  went. 
His  business  grew  and  he  grew  with  the  business. 
Growing  Rich  by  Giving 

TETSON  was  always  giving  money,  but  he  took  good  pains 
'not  to  give  so  as  to  pauperize  the  individual.  The  amount  of 
money  he  gave  away  no  man  can  compute,  for  he  kept  no  record 
of  it  himself  and  did  not  remember  it,  but  like  all  men  who  give 
much  he  was  occasionally  victimized. 

He  made  it  a  habit  whenever  there  was  an  increase  in  the  family 
of  one  of  his  workers  to  send  congratulations,  and  at  the  same  time 
a  substantial  recognition.  He  loved  babies.  He  doted  on  children. 
He  would  often  go  out  of  his  way  across  the  street  to  pat  some 
youngster  on  the  head  and  give  him  a  quarter.  The  children  would 
follow  him  hi  the  streets  and  call  him  by  name,  and  sometimes  he 
would  carry  a  baby  in  his  arms  to  relieve  a  tired  mother. 
It  grew  to  be  a  custom  that  when  a  baby  in  the  family  of  his  workers 
was  a  year  old  the  mother  would  come  around  to  the  factory  and 
show  her  darling  to  the  chief.  No  matter  how  busy  he  was  he 
would  go  out  into  the  hallway  and  greet  such  a  mother,  and  the 
rule  was  to  give  her  a  dollar  and  wish  her  happiness. 


Twenty-four  JOHN  B.  STETSON 

Attached  to  his  office  in  later  years  was  a  big  waiting-room,  and 
in  this  room  every  forenoon  was  a  goodly  group  of  callers  who  came 
for  their  blessing,  and  a  bit  anxious  for  the  substantial  part  of  it. 
Stetson  would  go  out  from  time  to  time  and  clean  out  the  room 
by  shaking  hands  with  everybody  and  starting  them  all  on  their 
way.  There  were  occasional  repeaters,  but  Stetson  overlooked  little 
things  like  that.  He  never  sent  any  one  hungry  and  empty-handed 
away  .-t*  ro 

On  one  occasion  a  woman  with  a  baby  in  a  shawl  appeared  as 
usual.  Stetson  shook  hands  with  her,  patted  the  baby  on  the  head, 
gave  her  a  dollar  and  started  her  off  down  the  stairs. 
In  about  fifteen  minutes  another  woman  appeared  with  a  like 
youngster  in  her  arms.  Stetson  was  intuitive.  His  was  the  feminine 
mind.  He  simply  knew  things  because  he  knew.  This  time,  without 
thinking,  he  said  to  the  woman,  "  Have  n't  I  seen  you  here  before?  " 
<I  And  the  woman  said,  "  No." 

He  followed  up  the  question  with  another,  "  Were  you  not  in  here 
an  hour  ago  or  less?  "  Then  he  said,  "I  have  seen  this  baby  before. " 
fl  The  woman,  abashed,  admitted  that  she  had  borrowed  the  baby 
from  her  neighbor. 

Stetson  never  blamed  anybody  for  anything,  except  laziness,  not 
even  for  lying.  He  used  to  say,  "  Nothing  but  the  truth  pays." 
Yet  censure  was  not  in  his  heart.  He  never  converted  himself  into 
a  section  of  the  Day  of  Judgment.  He  heard  the  woman's  con- 
fession that  she  had  borrowed  the  baby.  Then  he  laughed,  shook 
hands  with  her,  gave  her  the  dollar,  and  said,  "  Go  off  now,  and 
when  you  come  back  here  again  bring  a  baby  of  your  own." 

A  Builder  and  a  Creator 

[AN,  like  Deity,  creates  in  his  own  image.  When  a  painter 
paints  a  portrait  he  makes  two — one  of  himself  and  one  of 
the  sitter.  <I  If  there  is  a  sleazy  thread  in  your  character  you  will 
weave  it  into  the  fabric  you  are  making. 
A  Stetson  hat  was  a  bit  of  Stetson  character. 
Stetson   hats   looked   like   Stetson — they   were    unconventional, 


JOHN  B.  STETSON  Twenty-five 

natural,  generous,  genuine.  They  reacted,  too,  on  the  wearer.  <J  The 
word  "  Stetson  "  not  only  stood  for  hat,  but  for  a  certain  style  of 
hat,  and  a  certain  type  of  man.  No  cheap,  apologetic,  sneakerino 
tightwad  ever  wore  a  Stetson — it  would  n't  fit  him. 
Stetson  stood  for  The  American  Philosophy,  devised  by  people  who 
live  on  the  Fortieth  Parallel  hi  America. 

This  philosophy  reduced  to  its  simplest  terms  means  work,  love, 
laughter,  study  and  play,  mixed  in  right  proportion  and  taken  ad  lib. 
<I  Stetson  believed  that  only  the  busy  person  is  happy,  and  that 
systematic,  daily,  useful  work  is  man*s  greyest  blessing. 
"  This  country  is  built  on  business,"  said  Stetson. 
We  are  a  nation  of  workers,  builders,  inventors,  creators,  producers. 
<IWe  are  the  richest  country,  per  capita,  in  the  world ;  and  our  wealth 
has  all  come  from  the  farm,  the  forest,  the  factory,  the  mine,  the  sea. 
§  We  have  dug,  plowed,  pumped,  smelted,  refined,  transported  and 
manufactured.  We  did  not  inherit  our  wealth,  neither  have  we  laid 
tribute  on  other  countries  as  did  earlier  civilizations. 
The  word  "  education  "  sometimes  stands  for  idleness,  but  The 
American  Philosophy  symbols  work,  effort,  industry.  It  means 
intelligent,   thoughtful,  reasonable   and   wise  busy-ness — helping 
yourself  by  helping  others.  Only  the  busy  person  is  happy. 
The  world's  greatest  prizes  in  the  future  will  go  to  the  businessman. 
The  businessman  is  our  only  scientist,  and  to  him  we  must  look  for 
a  Science  of  Economics  that  will  readicate  poverty,  disease,  super- 
stition and  all  that  dissipates  and  destroys. 

It  is  a  great  man  who  focuses  on  his  business  and  instead  of  putting 
the  whole  world  straight  looks  after  just  one  individual,  and  that 
is  the  man  right  under  your  own  "  Stetson." 
A  Business  General 

B.  STETSON  was  a  business  general.  He  did  his  work 
through  other  men.  He  knew  the  business  of  hatting,  and 
he  knew  the  human  heart  better.  He  knew  the  consumer  and  the 
dealer,  and  he  knew  the  workmen  who  manipulated  raw  stock  into 
forms  of  use  and  beauty.  <I  He  knew  how  to  captain  these  workers 


Twenty-six  JOHN  B.  STETSON 

for  his  own  advantage  and  benefit — and  theirs.  He  knew  how  to 
transform  indifferent,  slipshod,  faulty,  foolish  human  clay  into  men 
of  worth.  He  knew  how  to  take  a  man  who  was  not  a  friend  to  him- 
self, and  by  being  a  friend  to  him,  make  of  him  a  man  of  integrity. 
<J  To  influence  an  individual  who  does  not  know  how  to  economize 
his  own  time,  or  save  his  money  over  against  the  day  of  storm,  and 
make  of  this  man  an  economist  who  will  save  his  money  and  buy 
a  home  and  pay  for  it  and  have  money  in  the  savings-bank,  and 
conserve  his  health  so  as  to  enjoy  his  treasures  of  books  and  music 
and  flowerbeds  and  v%e  table-garden,  and  to  be  on  good  terms 
with  his  neighbors,  and  best  of  all  with  himself — to  appreciate  Nature 
and  all  the  manifold  beauties  of  this  wondrous  world,  this  was  one 
of  the  achievements  of  John  B.  Stetson,  done  over  and  over  again. 
<I  From  the  very  first  Stetson  was  a  stickler  for  quality.  He 
believed  in  his  goods,  and  refused  absolutely  to  compete  in  the 
matter  of  price. 

So  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  he  was  the  first  man  in  the  hat  business 
to  adopt  the  one-price  system;  and  for  forty-five  years  the  prices 
on  Stetson's  hats  have  remained  the  same.  Materials  and  wages 
have  all  very  much  advanced,  but  to  meet  this  advance,  scientific 
economics  have  been  introduced  hi  the  way  of  manufacture  that 
equalized  increased  cost  of  raw  stock  and  labor. 
Always  and  forever  the  price  has  been  the  same ;  and  no  man,  no 
matter  how  much  money  he  had,  even  in  the  darkest  financial  hours 
that  Stetson  ever  saw,  could  buy  a  hat  a  penny  cheaper. 
Stetson  believed  in  himself  and  he  believed  in  his  goods,  and  he  had 
the  supreme  faith  that  the  public  would  eventually  come  to  him. 
<I  John  B.  Stetson  was  one  of  the  great  organizers  of  the  world. 
All  men  who  succeeded  in  a  masterly  way  owe  their  success  to  their 
ability  to  manage  and  control  the  efforts  of  other  people. 
Napoleon  succeeded  through  his  marshals,  and  this  fact  he  made 
no  effort  to  conceal.  He  bound  men  to  him  with  hoops  of  steel.  He 
fired  them  with  his  own  enthusiasm  and  filled  them  with  his  own 
purpose.  He  loved  them  and  they  loved  him.  Bertrand  followed 


JOHN  B.  STETSON  Twenty-seven 

his  master  into  exile  at  Saint  Helena,  and  was  servant  of  the  man 
who  once  ruled  the  world  until  this  man  passed  away.  Bertrand, 
remaining  on  the  spot,  guarding  the  grave,  refusing  to  leave  Saint 
Helena  even  when  the  master  had  turned  to  dust,  gives  us  an  object- 
lesson  in  loyalty  that  we  can  never  forget. 

When  Sir  Humphry  Davy  was  asked  to  name  his  greatest  and 
most  important  discovery,  he  thought  an  instant  and  then  answered, 
"  Michael  Faraday." 

If  I  were  asked  to  name  the  greatest  discovery  of  John  B.  Stetson, 
I  would  say,  "  James  Howell  Cummings." 

It  is  unfair  to  compare  one  great  man  with  another,  because  every 
superior  man  is  an  individual.  God  never  duplicates.  But  the  loyalty 
of  Cummings  for  Stetson  is  the  loyalty  of  Bertrand  for  Napoleon. 
<I  However,  it  is  not  a  loyalty  to  a  lost  cause  or  to  the  memory  alone 
of  greatness  gone.  It  is  something  far  more  difficult  than  that  s^ 
An  executive  has  been  described  as  a  man  who  decides  quickly  and 
is  sometimes  right.  The  real  fact  is  that  he  has  to  be  right  fifty-one 
per  cent  of  the  time,  and  more. 

Cummings  was  born  in  the  little  village  of  Goshen,  Pennsylvania, 
in  the  year  Eighteen  Hundred  Sixty-seven.  The  lad  received  a 
public-school  education  and  passed  through  the  high  school  with 
honors,  and  at  fifteen  years  of  age  entered  the  employ  of  the 
Stetson  Company  as  errand-boy. 

Marshall  Field  once  said  that  if  he  wanted  to  pick  a  boy  who  would 
take  up  his  work  and  eclipse  his  record,  he  would  select  a  youth 
who  left  school  at  fifteen,  whose  father  was  dead,  and  who  had  a 
mother  and  brothers  and  sisters  to  care  for. 

Young  Cummings  was  not  a  Bertrand;  he  was  more.  He  was  the 
Corsican.  He  had  the  same  hungry  desire  to  know,  the  quick 
intuition,  the  tireless  grasp  of  detail,  and  the  ability  to  swim  with 
the  tide  and  not  get  drowned  in  a  multiplicity  of  items. 
Like  Napoleon,  Cummings  is  slight  in  stature,  athletic,  and  uses 
all  the  body  he  possesses.  He  has  the  ability  to  work  long  and  hard, 
to  laugh  and  play,  to  run  and  enjoy,  and  thus  he  gets  his  rest  in 


Twenty-eight  JOHN  B.  STETSON 

change.  He  takes  his  vacation  every  day,  and  so  he  never  needs  one, 
and  is  always  in  a  mood  to  enjoy  one. 

From  errand-boy  he  became  clerk,  then  assistant  manager ;  and  in 
Eighteen  Hundred  Ninety-one  when  he  was  twenty-four  years  of 
age  he  was  made  Secretary  of  the  great  corporation. 
Then  he  became  Treasurer,  then  Second  Vice-President ;  and  in 
Nineteen  Hundred  Six  when  the  Chief  passed  away,  Cummings 
glided  by  divine  right  into  the  position  of  President  of  the  John  B. 
Stetson  Company.  For  five  years  he  had  been  hands,  feet,  ears  and 
eyes  for  John  B.  Stetson.  He  had  been  manager  de  facto. 
Cummings  had  the  respect  and  love  of  every  department  head.  It 
was  civil  service  carried  to  its  logical  end.  Cummings  knew  the  mind 
of  Stetson  better  than  Stetson  had  known  it  himself.  Cummings  at 
twenty-four  had  the  prophetic  vision.  He  had  been  disciplined  by 
Fate,  and  Nature  had  supplied  him  with  the  ability  to  learn  in 
silence  and  to  accept  what  he  could  not  change. 
Cummings  never  looked  for  slights  or  insults,  or  thought  of  having 
a  good  time.  The  business  was  his  first  love.  He  became  a  part  of  it, 
and  since  he  became  President  of  the  institution  he  has  made  no 
attempt  to  change  the  name  of  the  concern  from  "  Stetson  "  to 
"  Cummings."  He  reverences  the  memory  of  the  great  man  gone. 
He  is  not  in  evidence  except  when  needed.  He  is  a  man  who  early 
learned  how  to  take  orders,  and  he  now  knows  how  to  give  them. 
<I  I  would  say  that  the  chief  characteristics  of  James  Howell 
Cummings  are  summed  up  in  the  following-named  qualities: 
loyalty,  good-cheer,  economy,  faith,  energy,  industry,  modesty,  a 
restless  ambition  and  a  noble  discontent. 

Cummings  is  never  quite  satisfied.  Everything  must  be  made  better. 
He  is  always  willing  to  learn ;  and  while  he  has  little  patience  with 
the  individual  who  springs  a  suggestion  in  order  to  divert  attention 
from  one  that  has  already  been  made,  and  the  genus  kicker  is  quickly 
sized  up,  yet  the  most  lowly  helper  in  this  entire  army  of  five  thousand 
people  and  more  can  always  reach  him  and  will  receive  a  patient  and 
kindly  hearing  if  there  is  something  to  be  said.  Cummings  gives 


JOHN  B.  STETSON  Twenty-nine 

small  credit  to  himself  for  this  great  success.  He  says  he  owes  it  all 

to  the  people  who  make  the  hats,  the  salesmen  and  the  wise  and 

intelligent  dealers  who  sell  them. 

Cummings  has  sympathy,  but  it  is  not  of  the  maudlin  sort.  "  Forget 

yourself  in  your  work,"  is  his  motto ;  and  so  he  is  a  happy,  healthy, 

grateful,  gentle  Colossus  of  business. 

Under  the  management  of  Mr.  Cummings,  the  John  B.  Stetson 

Company,  already  the  largest  business  of  its  kind  in  the  world,  has 

not  only  continued  in  this  proud  position,  but  has  doubled  the 

volume  of  its  output. 

William  F.  Fray 

ILLIAM  F.  FRAY  is  Vice-President  of  the  institution.  Mr. 
Fray  has  gotten  a  lot  of  fun  out  of  his  work — money  as 
well.  He  is  a  joker  with  a  wonderful  fund  of  stories — that  happened, 
or  did  n't,  as  the  case  may  be.  Also,  Fray  is  a  worker  and  a  friend  of 
workers.  The  history  of  hatting  is  at  his  tongue's  end.  Here  is  one 
that  he  told  me,  which  may  be  true : 

Australia,  we  hear,  is  overrun  with  rabbits.  The  Government  once 
offered  a  reward  for  exterminating  the  pests.  The  first  rabbits  were 
carried  into  Australia  by  a  Scotchman  with  red  hair.  He  certainly 
was  a  genius  in  spite  of  his  color-scheme.  Fray  says  he  had  freckles. 
In  any  event,  the  Scotchman  carried  two  rabbits  as  pets  to  Australia. 
fl  In  five  years,  Fray  says,  this  Scotchman  was  the  owner  of  ten 
million  rabbits — the  natural  result  of  geometrical  progression.  As 
smart,  however,  as  was  the  Scotchman,  his  scheme  did  not  exactly 
work  out.  What  the  Scotchman  wanted  to  do  was  to  raise  rabbits 
for  the  fur,  so  as  to  manufacture  felt  for  Tam-o'-Shanters,  spats  and 
breeks.  The  rabbits  in  Scotland  had  a  beautiful,  deep,  soft  fur ;  but 
in  a  few  generations  in  Australia  the  fur  took  on  a  totally  different 
quality  and  evolved  rather  in  hah*. 

The  climate  of  Australia  was  of  a  kind  that  took  care  of  bunny 
without  a  fur  overcoat;  and  while  the  Scotchman  had  the  rabbits 
all  right  he  did  not  get  the  fur.  So  the  only  rabbit-skins  that  can  now 
be  used  for  fur  come  from  the  North,  or  the  land  of  cold  and  snow. 


Thirty  JOHN  B.  STETSON 

Albert  T.  Freeman 

ST  was  the  fixed  policy  of  John  B.  Stetson  that  no  individual 
in  an  institution  was  necessary  to  the  success  of  the  concern. 
<I  His  idea  was  that  the  organization  should  be  so  complete  that 
any  one  man,  from  president  to  janitor,  could  drop  out  and  his 
presence  not  be  missed. 

In  order  to  show  a  man  that  he  was  not  necessary,  Mr.  Stetson  used 
to  send  certain  individuals  away  on  vacations.  This  would  prove  to 
the  rest  that  the  work  could  go  on  just  as  well.  And  in  fact,  if  ever 
a  man  got  it  fixed  in  his  mind  that  he  was  absolutely  necessary 
to  the  business,  he  ran  a  pretty  good  risk  of  being  dropped  out 
entirely  *•»  £•» 

The  understudy  to  Mr.  Cummings  is  Albert  T.  Freeman. 
Mr.  Freeman  has  the  Stetson  spirit  in  every  particular.  He  came  into 
the  Stetson  factory  twelve  years  ago  under  rather  peculiar  condi- 
tions. Stetson  met  Freeman  and  liked  the  young  man  so  well  that  he 
employed  him  to  come  on  to  Philadelphia  and  enter  the  office  £•» 
From  the  first  Freeman  showed  such  marked  ability  that  Stetson 
allowed  him  to  gravitate  to  where  he  belonged. 
The  man  who  can  shoulder  burdens  is  always  needed,  and  Freeman 
exhibited  a  fine  aptitude  for  taking  care  of  difficult  and  complex 
propositions  that  needed  readjustment. 

Freeman  was  born  in  the  little  village  of  Penfield,  Monroe  County, 
New  York.  He  was  one  of  a  family  of  nine  children — the  father,  a 
Baptist  preacher,  "  passing  rich  on  forty  pounds  a  year."  It  is  a 
great  blessing  to  be  born  into  such  a  family,  where  soft  luxury  is 
absolutely  out  of  the  equation,  but  where  there  is  an  earnest  desire 
to  improve  every  opportunity  for  good. 

The  recipe  for  educating  your  children  is :  Educate  yourselves  $+> 
Freeman's  parents  were  educated  folks;  and  good  health  and  a 
hunger  for  knowledge  were  the  young  man's  sole  inheritances  «•» 
From  the  village  school  to  the  High  School,  and  then  to  Rochester 
University,  was  a  natural  evolution.  Then  came  a  post-graduate 
course  at  the  University  of  Chicago,  with  a  turn  at  teaching — and 


JOHN  B.  STETSON  Thirty-one 

the  rest  followed.  Mr.  Freeman  is  now  Vice-President  and  General 
Manager  of  the  Stetson  business. 

I  once  heard  Mr.  Cummin gs  say,  "  Blessed  is  that  man  who  has 
found  some  one  to  do  his  work,"  and  Freeman  was  in  his  mind  3+ 
When,  in  Eighteen  Hundred  Ninety-one,  the  Stetson  business  was 
incorporated,  Mr.  Stetson  provided  for  the  interests  of  his  lieuten- 
ants and  older  employees  by  assigning  them  portions  of  the  stock. 
<I  With  the  large  later  growth  there  was  a  natural  infusion  of  new 
blood,  and  he  sought  some  plan  to  give  the  younger  men  who  had 
shown  their  value  to  the  business,  a  direct  interest  in  its  profit. 
<I  With  this  in  mind,  in  Nineteen  Hundred  Two,  a  new  issue  of  five 
thousand  shares  of  Common  Stock  was  set  aside  to  be  assigned  at 
the  discretion  of  the  President,  to  employees.  Unlike  other  stock 
participation  by  employees,  no  payment  was  required  or  permitted. 
Stock  was  issued  to  trustees  for  the  employees  to  be  paid  for  at  par 
out  of  its  dividends.  These  dividends,  since  the  inauguration  of  the 
plan,  have  been  not  less  than  twenty  per  cent  per  year.  The  stock 
is  thus  full  paid  in  about  five  years,  after  which  time  the  employee 
receives  the  full  benefit  of  ownership  of  the  stock,  except  that  he 
is  not  permitted  to  dispose  of  it.  At  the  end  of  a  fifteen-year  period 
of  trusteeship,  the  stock  is  assigned  absolutely  to  the  employee. 
Absolute  transfer  is  also  made,  in  the  meantime,  in  the  case  of  death 
or  incapacity  of  the  employee. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  employee  is  discharged  or  leaves,  he 
receives  the  actual  amount  paid  up  on  the  stock. 
As  the  market  value  of  the  stock  is  about  four  hundred  dollars  a 
share,  there  is,  obviously,  a  strong  material  inducement  to  maintain 
the  loyalty  and  interest  of  the  employee.  It  is  a  splendid  plan  for 
insuring  permanency. 

Through  the  operation  of  the  stock-allotment  plan  and  by  other 
means,  a  large  proportion  of  the  adult  employees  of  the  Company 
have  become  directly  interested  in  the  profits  of  the  business  by 
stock  ownership. 
Nearly  thirteen  thousand  shares,  of  a  market  value  of  more  than  five 


Thirty-two JOHN  B.  STETSON 

million  dollars,  are  now  owned  by  persons  actively  engaged  in  the 
business  of  the  John  B.  Stetson  Company.  This  can  not  truthfully 
be  said  of  any  other  big  corporation  in  the  world. 
The  factory  floor  space  of  The  John  B.  Stetson  Company  covers 
more  than  twenty-eight  acres.  Here  nearly  six  thousand  hands 
are  employed.  The  entire  round  world  is  scoured  for  materials.  When 
I  talked  with  one  of  the  head  men  in  the  manufacturing  department, 
who  has  been  with  the  business  for  nearly  forty  years,  in  the  course 
of  the  conversation  he  threw  out  a  grave  wonder  as  to  whether  there 
were  any  fur-bearing  animals  along  the  canal-banks  of  Mars. 
A  remarkable  feature  of  the  Stetson  business  is  the  general  and 
wide  distribution  of  the  product,  the  hats  being  sold  throughout  the 
world  in  every  country  in  which  hats  are  worn.  No  other  trade- 
marked  article  of  merchandise  that  I  know  of  is  so  widely  distributed. 
<I  Stetson  hats  are  sold  by  one  hundred  fifty  wholesale  merchants 
and  more  than  ten  thousand  retail  merchants.  Of  the  latter,  one 
thousand  one  hundred  twenty-four  are  in  foreign  countries. 
The  largest  foreign  markets  of  Stetson  hats  are  Argentine  Republic, 
Mexico,  Canada,  South  Africa  and  Europe. 

The  materials  for  Stetson  hats  are  brought  from  many  parts  of  the 
world,  but  the  manufactured  hats  go  to  a  greater  number  of  countries. 
The  vogue  of  the  Stetson  hat  is  thus  not  in  its  exclusiveness  so  far 
as  the  merchant  is  concerned,  but  in  the  strong  hold  with  the  con- 
sumer which  its  quality  has  secured,  and  in  the  desire  of  the  mer- 
chant to  satisfy  this  public  demand,  regardless  of  whether  other 
merchants  are  also  handling  the  same  goods. 
The  John  B.  Stetson  Company  is  always  striving  to  make  the  best, 
better.  Nothing  is  too  good  for  a  "  Stetson  "  wearer,  a  "  Stetson  " 
dealer  or  a  "  Stetson  "  worker. 

This  great  business  has  more  of  this  spirit  of  brotherhood  than  any 
other  big  business  I  can  now  recall.  The  Stetson  spirit  regards 
business  as  opportunity — not  mere  opportunity  to  make  money, 
but  also  the  opportunity  to  educate,  bless,  benefit,  uplift  and  add  to 
the  joys  of  the  world. 


JAMES   HOWELL  CUMMINGS 


CIVILIZA 
TION 

turns  on  Or 
ganization;  and 
Organization, 
in  order  to  be 
of  any  value, 
must  be  Sci 
entific  fi  /t 


